JoAnne Burek

Nineteen people came out to hike in the always-popular Ministik Bird Sanctuary. We started at the Ball property, which is now managed by the Nature Conservancy. The vegetation was lush, green, and up close, with occasional breaks over boardwalks and at the lookouts over the ponds and lakes.

Exiting at the south edge of the property, we  crossed the road and continued on the University’s land on an old wide road. We stopped for lunch at the lookout on Williams Lake.

Flowers seen today include bluebells (Tall Lungwort), Coral Root Orchid, White Cockle, Pink Wintergreen, Canada Violet, Canada Anemone, Cow Parsnip, Cinquefoil, Twining Honeysuckle, Black Snakeroot, Spreading Dogbane, Meadow Rue, Beaked Hazelnut, and lots of wildrose bushes.

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Thanks to Lee for scouting and leading the hike. You can find all our photos on Flickr.

A group of 8 and a group of 7 came out to hike starting at the trail head of the Wanisan Lake trail section. We took the detour leg, a lovely segment that’s not walked very often, and entered the Blackfoot Recreation Area at the Detour and Wanisan trail junction.

Stopping alongside a lake, we watched birds dive-bombing the water. They were as graceful and swift as swallows, only much larger. From these magnified images, we believe they are breeding black terns, for their bodies and bills were all black and their wings long and grey. But if you know your birds, perhaps you can confirm in the comments.

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Leaving Meadow Shelter we headed south to exit the park, joining the Waskahegan Trail again on the section that we usually hike. As we came out of the woods, we were rewarded by a large landscape of beaver ponds that stretch out in both directions.

We turned right and headed down to the boardwalks that run behind the beaver dams, which put us at eye level with the beaver pond’s waterline.

Then it was into the forest again with a quick stop at the Wanisan Stopover.

And that was our loop.

Flora seen today include bluebells (Mertensis), Water Calla, False Solomon Seal, and fruit plants in bloom–strawberry, bunchberry, chokecherry, highbush cranberry, and gooseberry.

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Thanks to Trail Maintenance for the work on this trail last Wednesday and to Lee for scouting and leading the hike. You can find more photos on Flicker.